Boston's Children First v. City of Boston

• Decision Date: 18 January 2005
• Docket Number: No. 03-2470.,03-2470.
• Citation: 395 F.3d 10
• Parties: BOSTON'S CHILDREN FIRST, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. CITY OF BOSTON, et al., Defendants, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 10

395 F.3d 10

BOSTON'S CHILDREN FIRST, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. CITY OF BOSTON, et al., Defendants, Appellees.

No. 03-2470.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard September 14, 2004.

Decided January 18, 2005.

Robert J. Roughsedge, with whom Michael Williams, Chester Darling, and CPCR: Citizens for the Preservation of Constitutional Rights, Inc. were on brief, for appellants.

Frances S. Cohen, with whom Erica L. Hovani and Dechert LLP were on brief, for appellees.

Before TORRUELLA, LIPEZ, and HOWARD, Circuit Judges.

LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs, a non-profit organization¹ and ten white children living in Boston, challenged the City's former and current school assignment systems in a case that the district court noted "may possibly be the concluding chapter in thirty years of litigation over the effort to desegregate the Boston public schools." Boston's Children First v. Boston Sch. Comm., 260 F.Supp.2d 318, 319 (D.Mass.2003). In rulings that we recently affirmed, the district court rejected the majority of the plaintiffs' claims but awarded nominal damages to two children who were denied seats at their preferred schools because of their race. See Anderson v. City of Boston, 375 F.3d 71 (1st Cir.2004). Plaintiffs² then sought attorney's fees as a "prevailing party" under 42 U.S.C. § 1988. The district court denied the motion, finding that the plaintiffs' de minimis success on the nominal damages claim did not entitle them to a fee award. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

I.

Plaintiffs initiated the underlying suit on June 21, 1999, challenging the Boston Public Schools ("BPS") Controlled Choice Student Assignment Plan ("Old Plan") on the grounds that it improperly considered students' race when assigning them to schools in an effort to achieve "ideal racial percentages."³ The plaintiffs sought a declaration that the Old Plan violated their federal and state equal protection rights, as well as injunctive relief and damages.

On July 14, 1999, the Boston School Committee voluntarily amended the Old Plan to eliminate race as a factor in the school admissions process ("New Plan"). The plaintiffs responded by adding a plethora of claims to their suit. They ultimately sought (1) a declaratory judgment that both Plans violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983,⁴ Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,⁵ and Article 111 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights;⁶ (2) a permanent injunction ordering BPS to admit plaintiffs to the schools of their choice, prohibiting BPS from considering race in school assignments and governance, ordering BPS to redraw attendance zones, and granting BCF access to school records to monitor BPS's compliance with these orders; and (3) nominal and compensatory damages for plaintiffs who were not admitted to their preferred schools under the Old Plan.

In February 2002, the district court ruled that it would consider the plaintiffs' damages claim separately from their claims for prospective relief. The plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment on the damages claim on November 1, 2002, seeking nominal damages for all ten student-plaintiffs. That motion noted that the defendants had admitted earlier in the litigation that two students, John Feeney, Jr. and Kathleen McCoy, were denied seats based on their race under the Old Plan.⁷ It also emphasized that the defendants had not conceded that the Old Plan was unconstitutional. The parties then entered into unsuccessful settlement discussions, with the defendants expressing a willingness to pay "nominal damages" to Feeney and McCoy but an unwillingness to address the plaintiffs' additional request that they admit the Old Plan had been unconstitutional. The court ultimately granted the defendants an extension for responding to the summary judgment motion, allowing them to file their opposition after a bench trial on the plaintiffs' claims for prospective relief.

Over the course of four rulings between 1999 and 2003, the district court rejected all of the plaintiffs' claims for prospective relief. BCF I, 62 F.Supp.2d at 262; BCF II, 98 F.Supp.2d at 117; BCF III, 183 F.Supp.2d at 395-401; BCF IV, 260 F.Supp.2d at 334. In the last of these rulings, following the bench trial, the court upheld the New Plan against the plaintiffs' equal protection challenge and declined to retain jurisdiction to ensure that BPS did not return to using race in its seat assignment policy. BCF IV, 260 F.Supp.2d at 330-34. The court concluded by noting that

[P]laintiffs should not underestimate what they have accomplished. By bringing this lawsuit, they have persuaded the School Committee to abandon a constitutionally dubious school admissions policy. Plaintiffs have not obtained all of the relief they sought, principally because the court believes that their ultimate goal, mandatory neighborhood school assignments... is not constitutionally compelled.

Id. at 334.

With the plaintiffs' claims for prospective relief thus resolved, the parties returned to the issue of nominal damages. In their May 21, 2003 response to the plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment, the defendants again conceded that Feeney and McCoy had been denied seats based on their race and indicated that they were "willing to have this Court enter judgment awarding nominal damages to these plaintiffs." However, asserting that no damages may be awarded absent the deprivation of a constitutional right, the defendants opposed a nominal damages award for the eight plaintiffs who had not shown that they were deprived of a seat based on their race. The defendants also urged the court not to address the constitutionality of the Old Plan.

The court's May 27, 2003 ruling on the motion for summary judgment awarded nominal damages to Feeney and McCoy on the grounds that they "were denied seat assignments at their preferred schools because of their race" but without expressly stating whether the Old Plan was unconstitutional. BCF V, at 1. Stressing that nominal damages may not be awarded "absent the deprivation of a constitutional right," the court denied damages to the remaining plaintiffs, who could "make no showing of a deprivation under Texas v. Lesage, 528 U.S. 18, 21, 120 S.Ct. 467, 145 L.Ed.2d 347 (1999) (per curiam)." BCF V, at 1. Although the plaintiffs who were denied damages appealed that denial, the defendants did not cross-appeal from the nominal damages award.

The plaintiffs then moved for attorney's fees under 42 U.S.C. § 1988(b), which provides that in a federal civil rights suit, "the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party ... a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs." The district court acknowledged that "a plaintiff who wins an award of nominal damages is properly deemed a `prevailing party.'" Nevertheless, it denied any attorney's fees, concluding that:

While "hollow" may be too harsh a word, a one dollar nominal award to two of ten original plaintiffs, the entitlement to which was conceded by the defendants from the virtual outset in an otherwise unsuccessful lawsuit, will simply not bear the weight of the policy that Congress intended to promote by enacting section 1988.

This appeal followed.

II.

Because a trial judge familiar with the intricacies of a case is in the best position to evaluate a motion for attorney's fees, we review the denial of such a motion for manifest abuse of discretion. See Diaz-Rivera v. Rivera-Rodriguez, 377 F.3d 119, 124 (1st Cir.2004). Accordingly, we "confine our review to whether the district court has made a mistake of law or incorrectly weighed (or failed to weigh) a factor in its decision." Richardson v. Miller, 279 F.3d 1, 3 (1st Cir.2002); see also Gay Officers Action League v. Puerto Rico, 247 F.3d 288, 292-93 (1st Cir.2001) ("Apart from mistakes of law ... we will set aside a fee award only if it clearly appears that the trial court ignored a factor deserving significant weight, relied upon an improper factor, or evaluated all the proper factors (and no improper ones), but made a serious mistake in weighing them.").

A. Fee-shifting pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988

"In the United States, the prevailing litigant is ordinarily not entitled to collect a reasonable attorneys' fee from the loser." Alyeska Pipeline Serv. Co. v. Wilderness Soc'y, 421 U.S. 240, 247, 95 S.Ct. 1612, 44 L.Ed.2d 141 (1975). Congress, however, has created exceptions to this "American Rule," permitting fee-shifting in some contexts to encourage meritorious litigation that benefits the plaintiff and the public interest. See Blanchard v. Bergeron, 489 U.S. 87, 96, 109 S.Ct. 939, 103 L.Ed.2d 67 (1989). 42 U.S.C. § 1988 is one such exception. As previously noted, § 1988(b) provides that in federal civil rights actions, including those brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, "the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party, other than the United States, a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs."

Section 1988 requires a two-part inquiry: (1) whether the plaintiff is a prevailing party, and (2) if the plaintiff is a prevailing party, what constitutes a reasonable fee award. See, e.g., Farrar v. Hobby, 506 U.S. 103, 114, 113 S.Ct. 566, 121 L.Ed.2d 494 (1992). The first inquiry has substantial implications because, despite § 1988's discretionary language, we have interpreted the statute to mean that "`awards in favor of prevailing civil rights plaintiffs are virtually obligatory.'" Diaz-Rivera, 377 F.3d at 124 (quoting Gay Officers Action League, 247 F.3d at 293); see also Casa Marie Hogar Geriatrico, Inc. v. Rivera-Santos, 38 F.3d 615, 618 (1st Cir.1994) ("prevailing plaintiff is presumptively entitled to fee-shifting" in a civil rights case). Still, a court may properly deny a prevailing party's motion for attorney's fees if circumstances of the case would make a fee award unjust. Farrar, 506 U.S. at 118, 113 S.Ct. 566 (O'Connor, J., concurring); ...